Jack C. Vaughn

Professor

Biographical Information

Jack Vaughn is a molecular cell biologist and instructor in the interdisciplinary M.S./Ph.D. Cell, Molecular and Structural Biology (CMSB) Program. His long-term research goal is to understand the evolutionarily-conserved cellular, developmental, molecular and genetic mechanisms behind regulation of genes in Drosophila which encode intron splicing factor proteins. His lab is focusing on posttranscriptional processes. Most translational control elements are located in the 5'- and 3'-UTR of eukaryotic mRNAs. His lab has recently discovered a developmentally regulated 5'-UTR element in the Drosophila rnp-4f gene which is alternatively spliced and forms by intron-exon pairing to form a long evolutionarily-conserved stem-loop. This element exists in some isoforms of transcripts arising from the rnp-4f gene, an ortholog to human p110 and yeast Prp24, functioning as an essential factor to carry U4- and U6-snRNPs to the assembling spliceosome. Dr. Vaughn's previous students have utilized RNAi technology to show that this long mRNA isoform is essential for normal development of the central nervous system. Some of Dr. Vaughn's students are currently utilizing molecular techniques to identify and determine the roles of trans-acting protein factors in the regulation of rnp-4f pre-mRNA 5'-UTR alternative intron splicing. They utilize techniques including reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to amplify selected regions from mRNAs, DNA sequencing, RNA electrophoretic mobility shift assay, Western analysis, and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry to identify RNA-binding proteins. The lab has recently shown that alternative splicing here is regulated by one of the two major isoforms arising from the dADAR gene, namely the shorter one lacking in editase function. Others of Dr. Vaughn's students are currently constructing and utilizing GAL4-UAS transgenic fly lines containing a GFP reporter gene to study the role of 5'-UTR primary and secondary structure in rnp-4f gene expression control. They have recently found that retention of the unspliced intron results in upregulation of translation in the developing central nervous system. An additional research interest in Dr. Vaughn's lab is in the role of naturally occurring sense/antisense mRNA transcript pairs in the regulation of gene expression during Drosophila embryogenesis. We are currently utilizing the novel new CRISPR-Cas 9 technology in our research.

Department of Biology

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